Today was a botanist day with Juan Perez-Contreras and his wife Beatriz in Sierra Nevada. On the way up I called at a site where I had in the past seen a Black-winged Kite (Elanio Común / Elanus caeruleus) and was very surprised to find two birds there.
I watched these birds for a while, which were quite a long way off, I rang Juan to tell him of my find and to try and arrange to meet him a bit earlier. Just as we finished the call a third bird flew in and the other two came much closer, from this range it was quite obvious that two of the birds were immature.
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Prunella laciniata. |
I meet up with Juan and Beatriz and we started the drive up the mountain via the old northern road. On the way we viewed a nest site for
Golden Eagle (Águila Real / Aquila chrysaetos); a huge nest of branches rather than twigs could be seen in a hollow on a steep cliff face.
Once we were in the woods we stopped at a site for the rare
Epipactis fageticola, the plants were still some way off flowering and also down in number.
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Bug / Fragrant Bug Orchid (Orchis coriophora). |
Last year I found 18 spikes of this rare but uninspiring plant, this time we only managed 10. Further on the dead spikes of both
Sword-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) and
Barton’s Orchid (Dactylorhiza insularis) under the Sweet Chestnuts, along with 20+ spikes of the uncommon
Epipactis microphylla in varying stages of flower. Most were still in bud but some of the less shaded plants on the road side had lower blooms open.
Spanish Foxglove (Digitalis obscura),
Onosma tricerosperma subsp. granatensis,
Putoria calabrica,
Daphne gnidium and
Prunella laciniata were all seen in the area.
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Bug / Fragrant Bug Orchid (Orchis coriophora). |
Blackcap (Curruca Capirotada / Sylvia atricapilla),
Bonelli’s Warbler (Mosquitero Papialbo / Phylloscopus bonelli),
Common Chaffinch (Pinzón Vulgar / Fringilla coelebs),
Green Woodpecker (Pito Real / Picus viridis),
Golden Oriole (Oropéndola / Oriolus oriolus),
Long-tailed Tit (Mito / Aegithalos caudatus),
Mistle Thrush (Zorzal Charlo / Turdus viscivorus),
Nightingale (Ruisenor Común / Luscinia megarhynchos),
Robin (Petirrrojo / Erithacus rubecula),
Serin (Verdecillo / Serinus serinus),
Spotted Flycatcher (Papamoscas Gris / Muscicapa striata),
Woodpigeon (Paloma Torcaz / Columba palumbus) and
Wren (Chochin / Troglodytes troglodytes) were all heard or seen.
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Grayling (Hipparchia semele). |
We then moved over to El Purche a site just off the main road up the mountain where I showed Juan the site I had found a couple of years ago for
Orchis cazorlensis, the plants would have been over with but what was sad is that they had been chewed off by animals preventing any seed being set.
The next site was a spot that Juan and Beatriz had found, some great looking sloping grassy meadows; we soon started to find many plants of
Bug / Fragrant Bug Orchid (Orchis coriophora).
The plants were highly variable in colour, ranging from quite deep Red / Purple to White and Green.
Rock Bunting (Escribano Montesino / Emberiza cia),
Red-billed Chough (Chova Piquirroja / Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) and
Great Spotted Woodpecker (Pico Picapinos / Dendrocopos major) were the only new birds seen. Several butterflies were also flying in the meadows including
Brown Argus (Aricia agestis),
Black-veined White (Aporia crataegi),
Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus),
Grayling (Hipparchia semele),
Spanish Gatekeeper (Pyronia bathseba),
Spanish Marbled White (Melanargia ines) and
Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria).
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El Purche, Sierra Nevada. |
The next stop was lunch at the near by restaurant and then back to the site for the
Black-winged Kite (Elanio Común / Elanus caeruleus) but on this visit there were no Kites at all. We did see several
Common Kestrels (Cernicalo Vulga / Falco tinnunculus),
Common Magpie (Urraca / Pica pica),
Corn Bunting (Triguero / Emberiza calandra),
Crested Lark (Cogujada Común / Galerida cristata),
European Bee-eater (Abejaruco Común / Merops apiaster),
Barn Swallow (Golondrina Común / Hirundo rustica),
House Martin (Avión Común / Delichon urbica),
Hoopoe (Abubilla / Upupa epops),
Pallid Swift (Vencejo Pálido / Apus pallidus),
Red-legged Partridge (Perdiz Roja / Alectoris rufa) and
Spotless Starling (Estornino Negro / Sturnus unicolor).
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